Before the holidays I mentioned the Supreme Court’s ‘anticanon,’ decisions that everyone agrees were horrible. (Dred Scott v. Sanford was the one written by Justice Taney whose bust was just banned by Congress.) Here’s another of the ‘anticanon’ decisions, one that makes me want to travel back in time and just slap some serious sense into people.
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson … The law that said Blacks must ride in separate train cars was challenged by a man who was 1/8 Black. The Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on trains was perfectly legal using a “separate but equal” doctrine. As the cartoon demonstrates, the facilities were never “equal.” Seven of the justices saw no problem with segregation, basically saying that if this made Blacks feel inferior, that was their problem.
The lone dissenter, Justice John Marshall Harlan, said this decision would provide the ‘go-ahead’ for racial segregation. He was right. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision was used to justify segregation, injustice, and violence for the next 50 years.
Next Tuesday: Bad SCOTUS… Part 3
One Response
Are you moving forward in history on these? Guess we’ll get to WWII decision soon.